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THE  BRITISH  ACADEMY 


THIRD   ANNUAL   SHAKESPEARE   LECTURE 


Shakespeare    and    Germany 

By 

Professor  Alois  Brandl 

Of  Berlin  University 
President  of  the  German  Shakespeare  Society 

On  July  1,   1913 


New  York 
Oxford  University  Press  American  Branch 

35  West  32nd  Street 
London :    Humphrey    Milford 


Copyright  in  the  United  States  of  America 

by  the  Oxford  University  Press 

American  Branch 

1913 


THIRD  ANNUAL   SHAKESPEARE   LECTURE 

SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY 

BY   PROFESSOR  ALOIS   BRANDL 

OF  BERLIN  UNIVERSITY 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  GERMAN  SHAKESPEARE  SOCIETY 

July   1,    1913. 

WITH  sentiments  of  profound  reverence  and  gratitude  I  would 
say  as  the  prologue  to  my  discourse,  and  I  feel  sure  that  million* 
of  my  countrymen  would  say  it  with  me,  that  the  greatest  boon 
which  has  ever  come  from  England  to  Germany  is  the  supreme  and 
permeating  influence  of  William  Shakespeare. 

Several  English  writers  have  benefited  our  folk.  Dickens  gave 
us  the  novel  of  charity,  Walter  Scott  the  novel  of  history,  Thack- 
eray the  novel  of  reality ;  Byron  became  an  inspiration  to  Goethe 
and  Heine ;  Carlyle  still  proves  a  valuable  educator  of  our  nation ;. 
but  Shakespeare  has  swayed  and  turned  the  whole  current  of  out 
literature. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  old  imperial  race 
of  Middle  Europe  knew  only  two  sources  of  poetical  art  front 
abroad :  the  ancients,  and  France.  Latin  and  Greek  authors  were 
introduced  by  our  clergy  and  our  schools,  French  authors  by  our 
nobility  and  better-class  citizens.  There  were  wars  between 
French  and  German  rulers  on  the  right  and  on  the  left  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  but  they  could  not  prevent,  could  not  even  interrupt, 
this  fraternity  of  minds ;  the  culture  of  Germany  had  for  centuries 
developed  principally  through  intercourse  and  through  rivalry 
with  her  western  neighbour.  England  for  many  centuries  had 
nothing  to  say.  Neither  Chaucer  nor  Spenser  had  attracted  the 
attention  of  German  writers.  Elizabethan  plays,  no  doubt,  were 
acted  in  German  towns  and  courts  by  English  comedians ;  but  only 
their  subjects  made  an  impression,  their  acting  and  staging  were 
admired ;  the  word  of  Shakespeare  was  not  heard,  nor  was  his  per- 
sonality felt.  Milton,  the  strongest  man  among  English  poets, 
stirred  the  German  republicans  of  the  North  and  the  South,  the 
Hamburgers  and  the  Swiss ;  he  was  the  first  English  writer  who 
touched  the  German  soul ;  but  he  could  never  become  popular ;  he 

328440 


ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

soared  too  high  in  the  sphere  of  abstraction;  he  was  only  a 
prophet,  a  forerunner  of  the  master.  The  Spectator  did  become 
popular,  Robinson  and  Gulliver  were  read  even  in  our  villages  ;  but 
what  they  had  to  offer  was  only  poetry  of  the  foot — to  use  a  happy 
expression  of  Professor  Herford — not  poetry  of  the  wing;  they 
proved  suggestive  and  amusing,  but  did  not  contain  any  revela- 
tions. The  tide  did  not  turn  until,  a  short  time  before  the  French 
Revolution,  Shakespeare  conquered  Germany  with  his  word  and 
his  thought :  then  England,  for  the  first  time,  had  a  voice  on  the 
Rhine  and  by  the  Danube,  and  became  a  force  in  the  growth  of 
German  culture. 

The  man  who  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  this 
change  was  Lessing.  Many  educated  Germans  felt  about  Shake- 
speare as  he  felt,  and  some  of  our  literary  men  were  working  in  the 
same  direction  in  which  he  worked ;  but  Lessing  produced  the 
strongest  argument.  He  started  from  the  opinion  of  Voltaire, 
whose  critique  and  imitations  of  Shakespeare  had  done  most 
towards  calling  the  attention  of  German  readers  to  the  English 
dramatist.  The  great  Voltaire  had  learned  in  England  that 
Shakespeare  had  a  large  soul,  and  was  a  genius  by  nature ;  but 
he  found  him  a  sinner  against  the  rules  of  Aristotle  as  deduced  by 
the  classicists.  No,  said  Lessing;  Shakespeare  does  not  sin  against 
the  rules  of  Aristotle,  if  you  but  understand  them  properly; 
Shakespeare  agrees  with  him  in  all  essential  things  much  better 
than  Voltaire  himself.  As  an  example,  Lessing  compared  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  ghost  in  Voltaire's  S  emir  amis,  in  broad  daylight, 
at  the  council-assembly,  announced  only  by  a  clap  of  thunder, 
with  the  ghost  in  Hamlet,  which  appears  at  midnight,  on  the 
ramparts  of  Elsinore,  seen  first  by  the  lonely  sentries,  through 
whose  observations  we  are  well  prepared  for  what  it  has  to  tell 
Hamlet.  A  clearer  and  more  convincing  comparison  could  not  be 
given,  and  Shakespeare  at  once  took  his  place  on  the  throne 
vacated  by  Voltaire.  Evidently,  Lessing  pitted  one  of  the  two 
literary  authorities  recognized  in  his  country  at  the  time  against 
the  other,  the  ancients  against  the  French — more  perhaps  than 
was  strictly  legitimate.  He  thus  succeeded  in  calling  in  a  third 
authority,  the  English;  and  by  multiplying  our  authorities  he 
gave  us  greater  confidence  to  think  independentlv. 

This  discussion  might  have  remained  a  transitory  literary  con- 
troversy :  but  circumstances  raised  it  to  the  position  of  a  starting- 
point  for  great  deeds. 

Germany  wanted  dramas.     Many  of  the  princes  and  princelings 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  5 

who  ruled  it  maintained  theatres  in  their  residences :  this  was  per- 
haps the  only  noteworthy  service  done  to  old  Germany  by  the 
6  Kleinstaaterei  '.  The  wealthier  towns  followed  suit,  and  built 
theatres  of  their  own.  The  people,  tired  of  sermons,  and  unable  to 
take  an  interest  in  politics  or  sports,  sometimes  even  forbidden  to 
travel,  flocked  to  the  performances.  A  successful  play  could  make 
its  author  famous,  and  his  work  influential  in  the  highest  degree. 
But  in  order  to  be  successful  a  play  had  to  be  poetical,  had  to  con- 
tain a  body  of  thought,  and  had  to  be  clothed  in  fine  rhetoric ;  for 
the  average  German,  though  a  poor  politician,  had  by  his  good 
schools  become  an  intelligent  person,  had  a  satchelful  of  solid 
knowledge  on  his  back,  and  would  not  be  satisfied  with  superficial 
farces  and  operettas ;  he  wanted  to  be  amused  intelligently,  and 
this  demand  for  a  literary  drama  at  the  time  of  Lessing  was  ex- 
actly met  by  Shakespeare. 

A  negative  circumstance  must  not  be  forgotten :  in  Germany  no 
strong  tradition  of  home-made  dramas  stood  in  the  way  of  Shake- 
speare, as  was  the  case  in  France,  where  the  respect  for  Corneille, 
Racine,  Moliere,  and  their  schools  was  a  bar  against  the  Eliza- 
bethan. The  very  poverty  of  the  German  native  drama  before 
Goethe^and  Schiller  was  Shakespeare's  ally.  '  So  our  virtues  lie 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  time.' 

Translators  assisted  Lessing  in  making  Shakespeare  known  and 
understood,  but  imitators  planted  him  in  German  soil.  It  was  his 
good  luck  again  that  his  first  imitators  were  our  classics,  who 
moulded  the  entire  taste  of  the  following  generations.  Lessing 
himself  led  the  way,  and  borrowed  his  blank  verse.  Young  Goethe 
took  over  the  free  and  almost  lawless  structure  of  the  Histories, 
and,  in  addition,  he  borrowed  a  number  of  details  which  we  find 
scattered  throughout  his  works. 

In  the  first  part  of  his  Faust,  for  example,  the  appearance  of  the 
4  Erdgeist '  was  suggested  by  that  of  the  spirit  of  Julius  Caesar  in 
Brutus 's  tent;  the  meeting  of  Faust  with  the  brawling  students  by 
the  scene  where  Prince  Hal  turns  up  in  the  midst  of  the  Fal- 
staff  company;  Margaret's  low-minded  widow-companion,  Fran 
Schwertlein,  by  the  nurse  in  Romeo  and  Juliet ;  the  fatal  duel  of 
Valentine  by  that  of  Tybalt ;  the  insanity  of  Margaret  by  that  of 
Ophelia.  Nor  was  Schiller  less  indebted  to  Shakespeare  than 
Goethe.  How  much  he  learned  from  Shakespeare  is  best  seen  by 
comparing  the  two  brothers  in  his  Robbers  with  the  sons  of 
Gloucester  in  King  Lear,  or  the  conspiracy  of  Tell  with  that  in 
Julius  Caesar.  Goethe  and  Schiller  were  never  slavish  imitators, 


6          THIRD  ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

but  their  drama  is,  in  essence,  a  plant  from  the  seed  of  Shakespeare. 
There  is  also  an  original  drama  of  Germany,  of  an  absolutely  dif- 
ferent type :  it  is  the  musical  Buhnenfest spiel  of  Richard  Wagner. 
From  the  time  that  Shakespeare  was  thus  naturalized  in  Ger- 
many, the  literary  drama  has  become  a  most  important  factor  in 
German  life.  It  has  attracted  our  best  poets,  so  much  so 
that  the  most  characteristic  portion  of  our  literature  must 
not  merely  be  read,  like  modern  English  literature,  which  can 
be  enjoyed  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  or  on  an  ostrich  farm  in 
South  Africa  almost  as  well  as  in  London ;  but  if  you  mean  to 
do  justice  to  the  best  modern  German  literature,  you  must  go 
to  the  theatre  and  hear  it.  Consequently,  a  good  theatre  is  a 
necessary  part  of  the  equipment  of  every  German  town  of  any 
dimensions ;  any  place  without  it  is  looked  down  upon  as  phi- 
listine,  is  avoided  by  well-to-do  people,  and  is  considered  a  mere 
Nest,  because  it  does  not  enable  its  inhabitants  to  enjoy  the 
most  interesting  part  of  national  literature.  It  is  astonishing  to 
remark  what  sacrifices  a  middle-sized  German  town  of,  say,  20,000 
people  will  make  to  procure  a  theatre.  Societies  and  individuals 
will  make  contributions  for  years  together  till  they  have  collected 
enough  to  begin  building.  On  a  fair  site  the  fair  building  rears  its 
head ;  flower-beds  are  laid  out  in  front  of  it ;  the  most  modern  ap- 
pliances are  sought  out  for  the  stage;  there  is  a  foyer  provided 
where  the  audience  may  saunter  in  the  intervals,  to  wish  each  other 
good  evening  and  doubtless  to  exchange  brief  comments  on  the 
play :  a  feeling  of  festivity,  '  Festlichkeit ',  reigns  everywhere.  In- 
stead of  demanding  rent,  the  municipality  often  makes  a  special 
allowance  to  enable  the  manager  to  engage  a  good  cast.  Above  all, 
the  people  themselves  go  to  the  theatre  regularly ;  they  often  sub- 
scribe for  a  certain  number  of  seats  a  week,  and  thus  compel  the 
manager  to  keep  a  variety  of  plays  in  stock,  a  repertory.  They 
take  good  and  indifferent  plays  as  they  come,  and  are  enabled  in 
this  way  to  compare,  to  comprehend,  to  relish  poetical  life  and 
beauty,  and  to  despise  mere  sensation.  A  literary  atmosphere 
pervades  the  society  of  such  a  town,  animates  its  meetings,  and 
brightens  the  hearts.  The  blessings  of  this  repertory  theatre, 
which  is  an  essential  feature  of  the  modern  German  '  Gartenstadt ', 
we  owe  principally  to  Shakespeare.  He  has  given  us  the  plays 
which  at  the  outset  drew  the  largest  audiences,  which  trained  the 
best  actors  and  critics,  and  which  were  taken  as  models  by  the 
more  gifted  play-writers.  No  doubt  his  name  would  be  the  best 
with  which  to  inaugurate  also  an  English  repertory  theatre,  and 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  7 

to  induce  English  people  to  return  to  their  pre-Cromwellian  habits 
of  going  to  the  theatre  regularly. 

Even  no~wadays  the  theatre  is  the  stronghold  of  the  Shakespeare 
cult  in  Germany.  There  are  some  180  German  companies,  and 
they  maintain  in  their  repertory  about  twenty-five  plays  of  Shake- 
speare. On  looking  up  the  statistics  published  every  year  in  the 
Shakes peare-Jahrbuch  with  regard  to  the  frequency  of  perform- 
ances, one  finds  at  the  head  of  the  list  such  serious  plays  as  Ham- 
let, Othello,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  and  The  Merchant  of  Venice.  On 
an  average,  throughout  the  Fatherland,  three  or  four  plays  of 
Shakespeare  are  performed  every  evening.  In  Berlin,  the  theatri- 
cal capital,  it  sometimes  happens  that  on  five  or  six  successive 
evenings  as  many  different  plays  of  his  are  to  be  seen.  Whenever 
the  supply  of  modern  plays  fails  for  a  time,  Shakespeare  is  called 
in,  and  is  sure  to  save  the  financial  situation. 

A  poet  who  is  so  frequently  heard  in  the  theatre  is  much 
stronger  than  a  poet  who  is  merely  read  in  books :  this  explains 
the  miraculous  popularity  which  Shakespeare  enjoys  in  Germany. 
If  one  wishes  to  gauge  the  significance  of  Shakespeare  for  the  mass 
of  German  people,  one  need  only  open  Biichmann's  Collection  of 
*  Winged  Words  ' ;  there  one  sees  with  astonishment  how  intensely 
the  German  lives  in  Shakespeare  and  speaks  his  words.  The  ex- 
pressions '  something  is  rotten  in  the  state  of  Denmark  ',  or  *  ca- 
viare to  the  general '  come  as  readily  to  the  lips  of  the  German  as 
of  the  Englishman.  Thousands  speak  with  Hamlet  of  '  To  be  or 
not  to  be  ',  and  with  Prince  Henry  of  '  a  world  in  arms  '.  From 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream  was  borrowed  the  burlesque  phrase 
'  Well  roared,  lion  ',  from  Measure  for  Measure  the  '  tooth  of 
time  ',  from  Lear  '  the  learned  Thebans  ',  and  *  every  inch  a  king  ', 
as  well  as  the  inevitable  '  last  not  least ',  which  is  even  more  often 
employed  by  Germans  than  by  the  English  themselves.  All  the 
other  British  authors  together  have  not  yielded  as  many  winged 
words  as  Shakespeare  alone ;  no  other  foreign  author,  not  even 
Homer,  approaches  him  in  such  a  degree  of  popularity ;  and  one 
has  to  turn  to  the  Bible  to  find  a  more  influential  work  of  foreign 
origin :  only  this  book  of  books  soars  even  above  Shakespeare. 

Remarkable  as  such  adoption  of  metaphorical  or  witty  phrases 
may  be,  still  more  significant  is  the  fact  that  a  series  of  common 
words  have  through  him  become  part  and  parcel  of  daily  usage. 
Professor  Kluge,  in  a  paper  read  to  the  German  Shakespeare  So- 
ciety in  1893,  had  some  remarkable  communications  to  make  with 
regard  to  the  augmentation  of  the  German  dictionary  by  Shake- 


8          THIRD  ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

speare.  If  Germans  mean  to  greet  each  other  with  a  typically 
German  expression,  urdeutsch,  they  say  Heil — without  dreaming 
that  it  is  borrowed  from  the  cry  of  the  witches  in  Macbeth,  '  Hail 
to  thee  '.  The  substantive  Heim,  equivalent  to  the  '  home  '  of  the 
English  language,  is  due  to  the  translators  of  Shakespeare;  for- 
merly it  was  used  in  German  only  adverbially,  in  words  like 
heimkehren,  '  return  home  '.  Halle,  as  corresponding  to  English 
*  hall ',  had  died  out  in  Germany  shortly  after  Luther,  it  is  not 
found  in  literary  use  for  centuries  ;  but  in  Klopstock,  a  notable  ad- 
mirer of  Shakespeare,  the  word  reappears,  and  bears  the  same  ex- 
alted signification, '  hall  of  a  castle  ',  as  it  does  in  Shakespeare,  and 
not  that  of  '  entrance  hall ',  as  in  everyday  English.  Even  the 
use  of  the  word  Sect  for  champagne  arose  in  connexion  with 
Shakespeare.  In  the  eighteenth  century  Sect  was  employed  by 
the  German  only  for  heavy  wines  such  as  were  made  from  dried 
berries  in  Spain  and  in  the  Canary  Islands ;  in  this  sense  the  word 
is  employed  by  Shakespeare  too,  when  he  makes  Falstaff  such  a 
lover  of  *  sack  '.  But  when  the  Falstaff  actor  Ludwig  Devrient  in 
Berlin  came  weary  and  thirsty  from  the  theatre  to  the  tavern  of 
Luther  and  Wegener  in  the  Charlottenstrasse,  and  wanted  cham- 
pagne, he  continued  in  the  tenor  of  his  Falstaff-part  to  call  for 
'  Sect ' — an  expression  that  landlord,  guests,  and  waiters  quickly 
adopted  and  successfully  transmitted  to  the  world  of  Shakespear- 
ians  outside.  This  is  real'  popularity.  In  short,  when  the  German 
laughs  or  drinks  or  philosophizes,  when  he  enters  a  castle  or  re- 
turns to  his  home,  the  spirit  of  Shakespeare  is  ever  at  his  side, 
thinks  for  him  and  jokes  with  him,  like  a  right  good  friend. 

Politicians  and  statesmen  have  not  failed  to  make  use  of  this 
power  of  Shakespeare  over  the  German  people.  4  Hamlet  is  Ger- 
many '  impatiently  exclaimed  Freiligrath,  the  friend  of  liberty, 
to  his  hesitating  countrymen  a  short  time  before  1848.  In  opposi- 
tion to  him,  Bismarck  compared  Hamlet  to  Napoleon  III.  Alto- 
gether Bismarck,  in  his  student  days  in  Gottingen  and  associating 
freely  with  Englishmen  and  Americans,  had  not  only  acquired  a 
deep  reading  knowledge  of  Shakespeare,  but  had  also  to  some  ex- 
tent lived  many  a  Falstaff  scene  on  his  own  account.  Prince 
Harry,  who  to  all  appearance  had  wasted  his  youth  with  tippling 
beer-swillers,  but  who,  by  this  means,  obtained  a  deep  knowledge 
of  men  and  things,  and  later,  becoming  serious,  surprises  every  one 
by  the  sudden  ripeness  he  shows,  was  one  of  Bismarck's  favourite 
characters  all  his  life  long.  He  also  knew  how  to  find  support  in 
Shakespeare  when  he  enthusiastically  called  out  the  masses  against 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  9 

the  parties.  He  was  sure  that  if  he  clothed  his  thoughts  in 
Shakespeare's  words  they 'would  best  appeal  to  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen. 

In  the  world  of  art  and  science,  too,  many  a  scholar,  as  is  but 
natural,  has  taken  a  deep  interest  in  Shakespeare.  In  philosophy, 
Schopenhauer,  the  famous  pessimist,  may  be  mentioned;  few  ob- 
jects escaped  his  iconoclasm;  one  of  these  few  was  Shakespeare. 
Recently  the  psychologist  Dilthey,  in  his  well-known  book  on 
Inward  Experience  and  the  Poet,  chooses  some  of  his  best  illus- 
trations from  the  great  English  dramatist.  He  compares  Shake- 
speare, the  '  biographer  of  a  thousand  souls  ',  with  Goethe,  who 
is  constantly  autobiographical.  He  ascribes  Shakespeare's  won- 
derful gift  of  incarnating  characters  to  his  power  of  observation, 
to  his  piercing  eye  ever  directed  on  the  world  outside,  to  his 
true  English  empiricism,  and  to  the  influence  of  an  age  the  en- 
vironment of  which  was  extremely  favourable  to  his  genius.  In 
jurisprudence  Shakespeare  has  been  cited  before  the  court.  Jhe- 
ring,  the  author  of  Kampf  wms  Recht,  has  discussed  Shylock's  bond 
from  the  standpoint  of  Roman  law.  Kohler  has  scrutinized  his 
tragic  heroes  as  closely  as  if  they  were  criminals.  The  question 
whether  his  knowledge  of  law  gives  ground  for  believing  that  he 
himself  in  his  youth  was  employed  in  a  court  of  justice  has  had 
no  less  interest  for  the  German  than  for  the  English  jurist.  Medi- 
cal men  have  examined  his  poisons,  and  such  of  his  characters  as 
are  tainted  by  insanity.  Astronomers  have  proved  his  allegiance 
to  the  Ptolemaic  system.  Everywhere  he  attracts  the  far-seeing 
minds  among  the  learned,  and  sets  them  riddles  to  solve,  though 
he  himself  was  but  a  dealer  in  the  things  of  imagination,  and,  as 
far  as  we  can  see,  not  superior  in  knowledge  to  the  average  well- 
bred  Londoner  of  his  time. 

If  we  turn  to  philology  we  find  that  the  study  of-  English  in 
German  universities  has  to  a  great  extent  simply  grown  out  of  the 
endeavour  to  increase  by  courses  of  lectures  the  pleasure  which 
professor  and  student  alike  were  taking  in  Shakespeare.  In  Bonn, 
in  Tubingen,  in  Marburg,  peaceful  little  university  towns,  where 
poetry-loving  souls  were  wont  to  foregather,  were  heard  the  first 
scholarly  lectures  on  English  literature,  and  for  the  most  part 
they  centred  round  Shakespeare.  The  love  for  him  has  helped  to 
promote  also  those  Early  English  studies  which,  like  nothing  else, 
impress  the  student  with  the  original  identity  of  English  and  Ger- 
man language,  poetry,  folklore,  custom,  and  law.  In  order  ta 
fathom  the  depths  of  Shakespeare  the  first  German  society  for 


10        THIRD  ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

literary  research  was  founded,  the  Deutsche  Shakespeare-Gesell- 
schaft,  forty-nine  years  ago,  long  before  a  Goethe-Gesellschaft 
was  thought  of.  The  list  of  its  members  is  headed  by  His  Majesty 
the  German  Emperor,  who  is  well  known  as  a  warm  admirer  es- 
pecially of  Shakespeare's  Histories. 

Again,  our  secondary  schools  have  made  the  great  Elizabethan 
the  centre  of  English  studies.  German  lads  in  the  higher  classes 
of  the  Gymnasium,  especially  in  the  North  where  the  dialects  bear 
a  closer  resemblance  to  English,  find  it  easy,  with  the  help  of  the 
improved  modern  language  teaching  which  has  of  late  been  de- 
veloped, to  acquire  his  language  sufficiently  within  a  year,  so  that 
in  the  second  year  they  can  read  with  their  teachers  one  or  two  of 
his  plays,  and  enjoy  them.  He  is  always  the  favourite  author,  he 
brings  out  the  best  qualities  of  the  professor,  conveys  to  the  stu- 
dents a  keen  interest  in  English  institutions  and  history,  and 
provides  both  with  sound  moral  and  political  lessons. 

For  the  future,  the  well-wisher  of  the  German  people  can  but 
wish  and  hope  that  this  love  for  Shakespeare  will  last  and  ever 
increase.  We  all  feel  that  no  one  can  enter  into  the  enjoyment  of 
his  characters  without  becoming  himself  freer  and  greater;  a  na- 
tion that  takes  him  for  its  leader  cannot  be  other  than  a  manly 
nation.  And  it  is  not  the  least  of  his  merits  that  he  is  a  friendljr 
exponent  of  England  in  Germany.  He  has  surrounded  West- 
minster and  Windsor,  London  Bridge  and  the  Mermaid  Tavern 
with  a  bright  halo,  and  many  a  king  of  Old  England,  about  whom 
no  one  on  the  Continent  would  have  cared,  has  won  through  Shake- 
speare respect  and  fame.  It  makes  a  very  considerable  difference 
whether  we  come  to  know  a  nation  only  through  the  newspapers,  or 
through  poetry,  especially  through  such  a  poet.  Watching  a  na- 
tion through  the  press  is  like  observing  a  neighbour  through  his 
office  windows,  where  he  is  busy  with  his  daily  pursuits.  But  if  you 
study  a  nation  through  its  poetry,  you  as  it  were  watch  your 
neighbour  through  his  oriel  window  sitting  at  ease  in  the  midst  of 
culture.  Shakespeare  is  a  permanent  ambassador  of  England  in 
Germany ;  a  most  excellent  ambassador,  for  he  is  accredited  not 
only  to  the  court,  but  to  the  whole  German  people ;  and  his 
language,  though  always  impressive,  is  never  provocative.  He 
stands  before  our  eyes  as  a  friend  found  and  tested  in  days  of  need, 
an  unwavering  benefactor,  and  as  a  moral  world  power  in  very 
deed ;  therefore  his  mediation  is  sure  to  be  of  solid  and  lasting 
effect. 

This  unique  position  which  Shakespeare  has  attained  in  Ger- 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  11 

many,  and  which  he  promises  to  hold  for  a  long  time  to  come,  is  all 
the  more  striking  as  Shakespeare  has  paid  no  special  attention  to 
our  people,  seldom  thought  of  them,  and  has  by  no  means  treated 
them  with  particular  consideration.  He  makes  fun  of  German 
clothing — of  the  broad  hose,  from  the  waist  downwards  all  slops ; 
of  German  customs — fair  Portia's  ducal  suitor  from  Saxony  is 
described  as  '  very  vilely  in  the  morning,  when  he  is  sober,  and 
most  vilely  in  the  afternoon,  when  he  is  drunk  ' ;  of  German  watches 
— always  being  repaired,  and  never  in  order ;  of  the  German  tem- 
per, which,  of  course,  is  called  hasty.  Once,  indeed,  in  the  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor,  we  come  upon  a  friendly  assertion :  '  Germans 
are  honest  men  ' ;  but  on  looking  closer  one  discovers  that  it  is 
only  the  landlady  of  an  inn  who  says  so,  and  then  only  in  order 
to  clear  a  distinguished  German  traveller  of  the  suspicion  of 
horse-stealing.  He  has  heard  of  Wittenberg,  and  makes  Hamlet 
study  there,  but  for  the  spiritual  achievements  of  Wittenberg  he 
has  never  a  word.  He  makes  Vienna  the  scene  of  Measure  for 
Measure,  but  it  is  to  him  a  town  full  of  gross  looseness  and 
amours.  He  mentions  the  Switzers,  but  only  as  the  mercenary  life- 
guards of  Hamlet's  miserable  uncle.  From  the  national  point  of 
view,  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  why  a  German  should  feel 
enthusiastic  about  Shakespeare.  After  all,  the  cosmopolitan  vein 
in  the  German  character  has  been  strong  enough  to  ignore  such 
compliments. 

Still,  independence  and  spontaneity  of  action  on  the  German 
side  has  not  been  altogether  wanting.  The  impression  which  a 
poet  produces  always  rests  upon  two  factors :  first,  the  quality  of 
his  work,  and  secondly,  the  predisposition  of  the  reader.  One  and 
the  same  poem  is  apprehended  differently,  let  me  say,  by  a  scholar 
who  is  well  read  in  the  classics,  and  by  a  countryman  who  is  only 
versed  in  popular  songs.  Shakespeare  was  regarded  differently 
by  his  own  countrymen  in  the  seventeenth  century  and  in  the  nine- 
teenth century:  at  the  time  of  Dryden,  boisterous  Falstaff  was 
considered  his  happiest  character,  Hamlet  was  represented  as  a 
very  dignified  and  courtly  person  with  a  majestic  periwig,  and  the 
weird  sisters  in  Macbeth,  instead  of  appearing  in  supernatural  awe, 
had  to  perform  a  burlesque  dance.  But  Charles  Lamb  and  many 
of  his  contemporaries  worshipped  Shakespeare  as  a  mystical  phi- 
losopher, and,  according  to  their  opinion,  to  represent  his  plays  on 
the  stage  amounted  almost  to  profanation.  There  is  no  less  differ- 
ence of  opinion  about  Shakespeare  at  present  between  his  English 
and  his  German  admirers. 


12        THIRD  ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

Strange  as  it  may  sound,  it  is  a  fact  that  there  exist  two  Shake- 
speares,  one  on  this,  one  on  the  other  side  of  the  North  Sea,  both 
fully  developed,  both  felt  as  strong  realities  in  life,  literature,  and 
the  theatre. 

Allow  me,  for  a  moment,  to  describe  the  principal  qualities  of 
the  German  Shakespeare. 

First  of  all  he  is  modern,  because  he  is  read  and  acted  in  trans- 
lations. The  obsolete  words  and  the  quaint  meanings  of  words 
which  often  puzzle  his  English  reader,  and  sometimes  even  demand 
comment,  are  replaced  by  current  phrases.  His  Elizabethan  rug- 
gedness  is  almost  too  much  smoothed  over.  In  our  classical  trans- 
lation by  Schlegel-Tieck  the  meaning  is  put  forth  so  clearly  that, 
when  I  had  to  reprint  it  in  a  popular  edition,  there  was  sometimes 
not  even  one  passage  to  be  explained  in  a  whole  play — so  perfectly 
had  the  Tudor  words  been  recast  in  lucid  and  up-to-date  German. 
In  consequence,  a  German  reader  and  spectator  feels  himself  in  a 
way  drawn  closer  to  Shakespeare  than  a  Londoner,  who  has  no 
other  choice  than  to  take  him  in  the  original.  It  is  easier  in 
Germany  than  in  his  own  country  to  apply  his  sentences  to  the 
programme  of  a  brand-new  party  of  writers  or  artists ;  he  lends 
himself  with  more  freedom  to  questions  of  the  day  in  Berlin  or 
Munich  than  in  London  or  Manchester. 

Another  feature  of  the  German  Shakespeare  results  from  the 
difference  in  national  customs.  In  Germany  reserve  is  not  so 
strictly  demanded  as  in  England;  a  loud  laugh  is  considered  less 
objectionable,  even  in  cultivated  society,  and  gestures  are  not  so 
readily  called  extravagant.  Imagine,  therefore,  how  different  a 
Falstaff  scene,  a  meeting  between  lovers,  an  agitated  discussion, 
must  appear  in  a  German  theatre!  In  this  respect  the  German 
may  even  claim  to  be  more  faithful  to  the  historical  Shakespeare, 
who  makes  Romeo  and  Othello,  when  in  excitement,  roll  on  the 
floor,  and  Hamlet  leap  into  Ophelia's  grave  to  wrestle  with  her 
brother.  German  manners  have  remained  a  little  more  old-fash- 
ioned. Thus  it  comes  that  our  Shakespeare,  though  he  sounds 
more  modern  in  words,  looks  more  like  the  sixteenth  century  in 
manners. 

A  third  peculiarity  of  the  German  Shakespeare  is  one  for  which 
our  classic  writers  are  answerable,  who  so  vigorously  transformed 
him  into  new  life.  Margaret  in  Goethe's  Faust  has  so  much  in 
common  with  the  bride  of  Romeo,  that  an  audience  who  sees  them 
often  finds  it  difficult  to  keep  them  quite  separate.  Even  the  ac- 
tress who  impersonates  Margaret  one  evening,  will  next  evening, 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  13 

while  acting  the  part  of  Juliet,  unconsciously  embody  essential 
traits  of  the  modest,  patient  German  citizen  girl  in  her  representa- 
tion of  the  self-possessed  and  strong-minded  daughter  of  Lord 
Capulet.  Such  blending  of  Shakespearian  characters  with  those 
of  favourite  German  plays  happened  very  often  in  our  good  old 
H of  theaters. 

In  addition,  there  was  the  influence  of  our  older  critics,  with 
Goethe  once  more  at  the  head.  Hamlet  e.g.  was  described  by 
him  as  a  delicate  soul  on  whose  shoulders  too  heavy  a  task  had  been 
laid;  no  wonder,  then,  that  German  actors  often  played  the  part 
in  too  sentimental  a  fashion.  At  the  present,  without  doubt,  a 
strong  reaction  has  set  in ;  the  reformers  of  our  stage,  Max 
Reinhardt  and  others,  have  discovered  wonderful  ways  of  showing 
Shakespeare  in  the  broad  daylight  of  realism  and  of  the  Jugendstil. 
But  still  English  actors,  when  touring  in  Germany,  though  their 
performances  of  Shakespeare  are  often  excellent,  find  it  very 
difficult  to  please  German  spectators;  they  put  forth  their  Lon- 
don Shakespeare,  but  the  Berliner  sticks  to  his  beloved  German 
Shakespeare  who  is  endeared  to  him  through  Goethe  and  through 
the  translations  of  Goethe's  clever  disciple  Schlegel. 

In  the  fourth  place  we  have  to  consider  the  general  expectations 
with  which  a  nation  will  approach  literature.  If  my  students  are 
brought  into  contact  with  Englishmen  of  their  own  age  and  condi- 
tions, they  are  always  astonished  at  the  English  students'  habit  of 
asking:  What  benefit  shall  I  derive  from  this  or  that  new  author? 
Can  he  inspire  me  with  a  brighter  outlook  on  life,  or  infuse  into  me 
greater  strength  of  soul?  Is  he  a  noble  educator  like  Words- 
worth? Is  he  a  delightful  teacher  like  the  ideal  poet  whom  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  has  painted  in  his  famous  Apology? 

Young  Germans  look  at  literature  in  a  more  disinterested  way. 
They  want  to  be  shown  life,  as  intense  life  as  possible,  which  will 
enable  them  to  pass,  while  reading,  through  all  the  experiences  of 
the  persons  described,  as  if  they  were  experiences  of  their  own. 
They  want,  in  following  the  dreams  of  the  poet,  to  explore  the 
heights  and  the  depths  of  human  nature — not  to  alter  human  na- 
ture. To  them  didactic  verse  savours  neither  of  poetry,  nor  wit, 
nor  invention:  psychological  truth  in  poetry  is  their  heart's 
desire.  It  is  natural  that  Shakespeare  will  fare  very  differently  at 
their  hands.  Englishmen  lay  more  emphasis  on  his  wisdom,  Ger- 
mans on  his  passion.  To  the  Englishman — with  the  exception  of 
Mr.  Bernard  Shaw,  of  course — Shakespeare  is  the  national  hero, 
with  hardly  any  human  weakness ;  to  the  German  the  earlier  and 


14        THIRD  ANNUAL  SHAKESPEARE  LECTURE 

weaker  attempts  of  Shakespeare  are  not  only  facts,  but  most 
interesting  facts,  from  which  to  regard  the  wonderful  heights  he 
reached  later. 

In  consequence,  English  critics,  as  a  rule,  discard  such  rude 
plays  of  his  juvenile  period  as  Titus  Andronicus  or  Henry  VI, 
although  the  strongest  external  evidence  speaks  for  their  genuine- 
ness ;  they  would  feel  ashamed  if  their  Shakespeare  had  really  in- 
dulged in  the  '  Gothic  '  horrors  by  which  the  cannibal  revenge  of 
Titus  is  provoked,  and  if  he  had  really  represented  the  brave 
heroine  Joan  of  Arc  as  a  profligate  wench.  To  German  students, 
in  spite  of  their  sincere  respect  for  the  4  Jungf rau  von  Orleans  ',  it 
does  not  matter  if  young  Shakespeare,  during  his  period  of  storm 
and  stress,  following  Holinshed  and  other  chroniclers,  should  have 
slightly  overstepped  the  bounds  of  humanity.  If  his  beginnings 
were  crude,  the  brilliancy  of  his  later  works  appears  to  them  all 
the  more  striking. 

I  do  not  wish  to  express  an  opinion  concerning  these  two  Shake- 
speares.  To  many  an  Englishman  the  German  Shakespeare  is 
sure  to  appear  nationalized  to  such  an  extent  as  almost  to  wear 
the  garb  of  a  foreign  poet.  On  the  other  hand,  the  German  will 
argue  that  genius,  the  rarest  gift  which  nature  can  bestow  on  a 
nation,  never  belongs  to  that  nation  exclusively,  but  to  the  whole 
of  mankind ;  and  that  there  is  no  divine  or  human  law  which  for- 
bids foreigners  to  penetrate  into  the  genius  of  such  a  man,  to  amal- 
gamate themselves  with  him,  until  he  becomes  to  them,  by  their 
sympathetic  work,  almost  one  of  their  own.  But  one  thing  is 
proved  beyond  doubt  by  the  existence  of  these  two  Shakespeares ; 
that  the  Shakespearian  spirit  is  alive  and  active  in  both  countries. 
Only  the  most  popular  writers  are  objects  of  strife;  as  soon  as  an 
author  is  left  in  peace,  it  shows  that  he  is  dying — historians  and 
philologists  may  bury  him  in  their  libraries.  And  there  is  no  fear 
that  the  two  Shakespearian  parties  will  do  any  harm  to  each 
other.  Let  an  opportunity  arise  for  showing  gratitude  and  love 
to  Shakespeare,  and  both  nations,  yea,  all  civilized  peoples,  will 
stand  up  like  one  man,  and  hail  him  with  one  voice,  as  the  greatest 
creator  in  literature. 

Such  an  opportunity  will  present  itself  in  a  short  time,  when  we 
shall  celebrate  the  300th  anniversary  of  his  death — his  first  three 
centuries  of  immortality.  If,  on  April  23,  1916,  the  world's  hom- 
age to  the  poet  of  Hamlet  and  Lear  will  be  rendered,  as  is  hoped, 
here,  in  the  capital  of  his  country,  the  scene  of  his  literary  activity, 
it  will  be  an  assertion  of  the  harmonizing  power  of  poetry  over 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  GERMANY  15 

distinctions  of  race,  it  will  demonstrate  the  empire  of  Shakespeare 
of  which  Carlyle  perhaps  spoke  even  in  too  modest  terms,  and  it 
will  help  us  to  realize  that,  after  all,  humanity  is  larger  than  na- 
tionality. 

Au  revoir  till  Shakespeare  Day,  in  1916! 


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